A break in the rain this week?

Call it the Soggy Summer of 2024.

I started counting rain days since the beginning of meteorological summer on June 1. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recorded at least a trace of rain on 18 of 30 days in June. July brought rain on 16 of 23 days so far this month.

Add it all up and the 11.27 inches of rain since June 1 in the Twin Cities is almost 3 inches above normal.

We’ve only managed to string together four dry days in a row since June 1. No precipitation was recorded at MSP airport between June 23-26 and July 16-19. No wonder we’re getting swarmed by a bumper crop of mosquitoes this year.

Drier skies ahead

It looks like we have a chance to string together five dry days in a row for most of Minnesota.

Forecast models push slightly drier air into Minnesota from the northeast this week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NAM 3 km model shows drier dew points in the 50s easing into much of Minnesota from an air mass over Lake Superior through Wednesday.

NOAA’s Global Forecast System model agrees with other models that favor a drier high-pressure system across the Upper Midwest into Saturday.

Highs Wednesday will be refreshingly moderate with 70s.

Temperatures gradually warm this week through the 80s across most of Minnesota. By this weekend, highs will be close to 90 degrees in much of our state.

There’s usually a chance for some localized rainfall to pop up during the summer months, but our next chance for any widespread rainfall appears to arrive late Sunday into Monday. Let’s see how many dry days we can string together,

Enjoy the respite.